Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow

1. What is your reaction to the text you just read?

      I was surprised that at the end Lois talked down on Superman. It seemed like she didn’t like Superman as much as I thought. Superman had loved her and protected her during the battle, and I supposed she should support him. However, it turned out that she was hard on Superman, she said, “Superman? He was overrated, and too wrapped up in himself. He thought the world couldn’t get along without him.” It made him sound like an arrogant guy. How she portrayed Superman in this comics was different from what people usually perceived of him. 

      Another unexpected thing was the twist at the end. I thought Superman would die because of battling with his foe; however, he died because he felt sad killing his enemy. I didn’t think of Superman would give up his life because of that. I thought he would be depressing for a while, but still hold a strong duty of protecting people on earth, and would eventually come back. It was surprising to see him just left. But who knows? His body was not found, so he might live on in another form (just like how Brainiac did).

2. What connections did you make with the story? Discuss the elements of the story with which you were able to connect?

      There are a lot of scenes that I got connected to. When Kent got the parcel, and a lot of mini-supermen jumped out of the parcel, it reminds me of another fictional character—the monkey king in Journey to the West. Monkey King was also kind of a superhero who accompanied a monk on a journey to retrieve Buddhist sutras from the “West.” One of the tricks that the Monkey King does is to turn himself into thousands of mini-monkey kings and deceive the enemy. The scene from Superman looks very similar to what I saw from Monkey King from my childhood, therefore the scene connected with me. I believe this technique is used in many scenes in comics and movies, so it is usual that they connect with me. 

      The character Bizzaro also connected with me. His character trait was stupid because he genocided and eventually suicided just to go against Superman. It was meaningless and absurd especially that he did the opposite of what he did—he said hello instead of goodbye just to show his opposite standpoint from Superman. However, it connected with me because in childhood we had probably all done that stupid, non-sense behavior just to hold an opposite point against someone for its sake. 

3. What changes would you make to adapt this story into another medium? What medium would you use? What change would you make?

      I would turn the comics into digital formats if I were to publish it today. I would also cut it into separate parts and release them one after another online. There are increasing online readers because people rarely read comics books anymore, so a digital version of comics would make sense. Furthermore, the readers today prefer to consume much shorter stories than before, so cutting it into pieces would fit reader’s reading habits. They would also have something to look forward to for the next time when it releases. I would cut the comics into part one would be the story about Bizarro, part II will be the story about prankster, and part III would be about the toy man, and part IV, will be when the region of super-villains visited Superman, and finally, part V will be about the final battle. From part I to part V, it gives readers one story at a time and slowly leads them to the end.